Teaching my 2-Year-Old Niece How to Stamp

I posted this on my craft blog first, but thought it was appropriate for this blog as well :)

A couple of weeks ago I visited my family in San Diego. I'm itching to be able to craft with my niece, Madison, but she's still just a little too young. But she always shows an interest in my crafting supplies (in addition to my makeup), so I thought she would have fun learning how to stamp. She loves animals, so I got out the Life's a Jungle stamp set, a few colors of ink, and a plain white sheet of cardstock. I demonstrated for her a couple of times, then she went to town! She totally got the concept of tapping the stamp onto the ink a few times, but then every time she stamped the image onto the paper she did the same thing--tapped it a few times. So she always had at least 3 (usually partial) images on the paper. It was adorable!

She loved picking out the animals from clear sheet of acetate that the stamps come on. Then I'd put the clear stamp on the block, and she'd have at it. Once I cleaned a stamp to use a new one, I let her put it back on the sheet. It was like a puzzle for her...a good learning activity :)

At one point I stamped the lion on her hand. Then she wanted it on her other hand. Then she proceeded to take her sandals off and wanted her feet stamped. I used the fishy from the new Hot Diggity stamp set on her feet.
She is at an age where she loves copying. So she added more stamps to her hands and arms. And instead of stamping her feet, she simply added the acrylic stamps right onto them! She's so funny. This girl was covered in ink and had a giant smile on her face when we were finished. Mom may not have been too happy, but Auntie and Maddie sure had fun!!

CLEANING TIP: Madison leaned into the ink pad a few times and got ink on her cute little shirt. We used a combination of Zout and Shout stain removers, let it soak, then scrubbed w/ a toothbrush and the ink came out of the fabric after it was washed.

Here's a pic later that day of Maddie loving on her baby brother, Connor. She still doesn't quite get the concept of "gentle," so her loving usually gets interrupted quickly by Mommy :)

Ashley and Connor

How cute is this photo?! Look at those big blue eyes! I thought you, my lovely readers, would enjoy a recent photo of Connor, and it just so happens you get a recent one of Ashley, too :)

Connor Bradley and Ramblings of my AWESOME week in San Diego

The long-awaited arrival has finally come! My nephew, Connor Bradley Evans was born on Friday, 2-12-10, at 7:50am...right on his due date! What a punctual little guy. Here is a picture of him with my sister, Ashley.
And here's a picture of me with Connor once they got home today. He's such a sweetie, and a great sleeper!!
My niece, Madison, is 19 months old and doesn't quite understand what's going on yet. She thinks he's one of her baby dolls and wants to hold him. She also gently kisses his head. It's pretty darn cute. But I'll tell ya, my sister and Justin have their hands full...Madison is VERY active and is getting to that age when she likes to say "no" to everything.

Last week was such a great week, and it's continuing into this week! In addition to a precious new nephew, I also have a new job! On Wednesday I was driving from my house in LA to my see my family (and was hoping a birth too) in San Diego. On my way down, I got a call from Gospel Light Publications, a company I had applied to work at. (They publish Sunday school curriculum, church resource books, and other Christian books.) Well, they let me know they'd like me to work for them on a temp-to-hire basis to try things out...in a marketing position that is perfect for me!!! I started on Tuesday and so far I LOVE IT! My co-workers are all so welcoming and nice. I am SO ecstatic! When I lived in San Diego I worked for Christian Ed Publishers/Warehouse, and I worked closely with Gospel Light as a Marketing Coordinator, so I already had a relationship with them. They were probably my favorite publisher that we distributed for, so I'm really excited to be working for them now!

Here's a little background info in case you have missed the past 7 months of my life... Chris and I moved to Los Angeles from San Diego in July. He is in grad school for Sport Management and got an internship in UCLA's Athletic Dept (his dream school), so we made the move (although I miss SD immensely). I got a temporary job at Disney for a special project, but that ended Dec. 31, and they're not hiring right now, so I have been part of the 10% of Americans unemployed for the past 6 weeks. Although I am a CTMH Consultant, it is not a full-time job for me, and since I recently moved and do not know many people in LA, it has been hard to get it going again (although I have still been holding CTMH workshops in San Diego and have been keeping my craft blog up-to-date). I had originally applied at Gospel Light back in July when we first moved to LA, but they were reorganizing their Marketing dept and dragged their feet, then I got the job at Disney. Once I contacted Gospel Light again in January, they were fairly quick to act, and didn't even call me in for another interview...they just offered me the temp-to-hire job! Woo hoo!

Ok, another reason I had such a great week is because I have new teeth. I know this sounds really weird, so for those who don't know, here's a little explanation: When I was 7 years old I knocked out the bottom halves of my 2 front teeth. When I was in high school I got porcelain veneers. They lasted for 12 years, and one night in June they just decided to pop off. (Good thing I was sitting at home when it happened...I was mortified even for my husband to see my teeth!!) I went to my dentist first thing the next day and was fitted for new veneers. They do things much differently now than 12 years ago...they're supposed to last 20+ years now! Then I had to go in 2 weeks later to have them put in. BUT the new veneers were not made correctly. They were ok, but not perfect for the huge amount of money they cost! My dentist wasn't very happy with them either. So he wanted to re-do them, but I had just moved to LA and he is in SD. This was a series of 2 more 2-3 hr appointments, so I said I'll do it in a little while, I'm burned out on dentist visits. But then I got a job and didn't want to take any days off to go to San Diego when I was trying to impress them, so I had to wait until now to get my new veneers again. And this time they're PERFECT! :) Phew.

To top off my week, I won $20 from a lotto scratcher. I went to 7-11 with my sister the other day so she could grab something (before having the baby), and she got us each a scratcher just for fun. My little scratcher put an extra $20 in my wallet. Thanks, Ash!

And so far this week is going great, too, because I'm loving my new job! The commute isn't the most fun (1 hr), but it gives me good time to think, and in the morning, wake up. And it's pretty, so it's not too bad.

Well if you've gotten this far, I thank you for reading my ramblings!